E 

a 57 



MLGODDARD'S 



ADDRESS, 



IN COMMEMORATION OF THE DEATH OF 



PRESIDENT HARRISON. 





Oass ^3 3 
Book , 



AN 



ADDRESS, 






IN COMMEMORATION OF THE DEATH 



OF 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, 



PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



CITY COUNCIL AND CITIZENS OF PROVIDENCE, 



ON 



THE NATIONAL FAST, 



MAY 14, 1841. 



By WILLIAM G^GODDARD. 



• • •• 



. ..... • • ••• 

• ,. . . • «••••••• 

• . . ... ... • ••• • • • * 


. . »» 




-* , ' 


PROVIDENCE: 




KNOWLES & VOSE, PRINTERS. 




1841. 





'01 



P«'-. w • i - II. 

1 City Council of 

.<! impr 
Addn ; il»'' 

William H r Ham i 

StaU i ; And, i wbst tl • 

CM. 

XI ' servant 

THOM 18 • HOPPIN, 

THOM LS R. HOLDEN, 

i: w kDE, 

IOSEPH «•■ METCAL1 . 

[SRAEL <;. MANCHESTER 

.1 \MEB M. EARLE, 

i LME8 C, BDCKLLN, 

v. ii. 1. 1 wi w. boppin. 

William 6. Goooaad, I . 



P May 17, 1841. 

!i.i:mi\: The Addn ba, which I had tin- hoaoi Ui deliver !■ 
City Council ami the citizens of Providence, on the l Itli instant, a' 
which yon have been pleased t<> request a copy for the pn ts, is herewith 
■nbmitted u< your disp 
[ have the honor to hf, with the great! ot,your obedient servant, 

w ill,] \M i. GODDARD. 
Thomas C. Horrra, 

Toon u EL II in, 

B, Wi 

I M I .. M OALV, 

.1 \m M. Baalk, 

i Bi rai i v , 

\\ LfjAN W .!•'.'• I 



ADDRESS. 



Gentlemen of the City Council, 

and Fellow-Citizens of Providence ; 

The death of William Henry Harrison, late 
the President of the United States, has no paral- 
lel in the history of our country. Washington 
died amid the tranquil shades of Mount Vernon, 
after a life illustrated by the rarest union of heroic 
and of civic virtue which the world hath yet seen. 
His illustrious compatriots and successors, Adams, 
Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, were permitted, 
for many years after they had rested from the 
labors of office, to rejoice in the prosperity of the 
land over which they had ruled, and, yet more, to 
rejoice in the power of republican institutions to 
withstand the trials to which republican institu- 
tions are, in an especial manner, exposed. They 
all died, after having accomplished every object 
for which, as public men, they had wished to live. 
Not thus was it with him, the tidings of whose 
death so recently agitated the hearts of this whole 
people. He was swept from the earth, in the hour 
of fresh triumph and joyous expectance, — in the 



midst <»l n: mplishcd plan-, amid all tin 

rns of place and of power; Bnatched for i 
from our sight at the moment when every i 
turned towards him, and before the voice, which 
he had lifted up in the presence of thousands, had 
died away upon the ear ! Whal | es of splen- 

dor and of gloom in the hi of th< last 

w< What alternations of joy and grief haw 

torn the public mind! How man] purposes have 
11 broken off! How many hopes have perished! 
The Angel of Death hath gone up into our pal 
ces, and. as if to give this whole nation a more 
ml manifestation of his power, he hath smitten 

iwn, al light, the < bi< f w hom I 

rhted to honor. The agitation caused by an 
a! so startling, has subsided into the stillm 
of a contemplative sorrow. The son for ab- 

irbinfi emotion has The season for reflei 

tion has come. Let it not have come in vain. 
Now, in the time of our adversity, shall we not 

ek to learn the sweet uses of adversity ! Shall 
we not, in dependence upon divine aid, aim to 
discover and to renounce our sins I Shall we not, 
in profound humility, supplicate the King of all 
the earth to look down from the throne of bis 
holiness, in pity, upon us and our common coun- 



n I 



In the solemnities of this day there lieth a deep 
tning, which it were well to understand. They 
are endowed with a moral sublimit] which no 
forms of material grandeur can shadow forth. 
Thcj appeal to undying principles in the nature 
of man They -land in awful relationship to the 



attributes of the Eternal. They speak to us, in 
no earthly tones, of all that scatters light or dark- 
ness over the prospects of immortality. What a 
spectacle have the temples of Christian worship, 
throughout our land, this day presented ! A whole 
people, chastened by the recollection of their re- 
cent sorrow, and putting aside the interests of daily 
life, have prostrated themselves before the Al- 
mighty, to confess their dependence upon him ; to 
entreat the forgiveness of all their sins, negli- 
gences, and ignorances ; and to commend to his 
protection the country upon which, in all past 
time, his richest blessings have been showered. 
The pulpit, this morning, has been faithful to its 
high trust. It has addressed to the understanding 
the most momentous truths, and to the conscience 
and the heart the most persuasive exhortations in 
behalf of a better life. We have assembled, this 
evening, amid the trappings and the suits of wo, 
not to banish from our minds the high spiritual 
design of these solemnities, but to blend with them 
a tribute of grateful homage to the life and char- 
acter of our departed Chief Magistrate ; not to 
speak of him as the representative of any particu- 
lar opinions or interests about which his fellow- 
citizens are divided, but to speak of him as the 
President of this Federal Republic ; as a patriot 
who, when his country claimed his services, was 
always the last to think of himself; as a man of 
tried ability in the conduct of affairs, both civil 
and military ; but whose noblest distinction, after 
all, was not so much reach, and originality, and 
brilliancy of intellectual power, as that higher 



wisdom which if the growth of right principles 
and direct purposes, and cultivated affections. To 
more elaborate pens mus( be reserved that 
cumstantial narrative ol the events of his life, and 
ilia i accurate analysis of the elements of his char- 
acter, which hi*- fellow-citizens will do! be slow to 
demand as due to his fame and u> the fame of bis 
country. Be mine, however, the humbler task to 
glance at pa - in bis eventful Btory; and i<> 
attract your attention, more particularly, to those 
of his characteristics which can be contemplated 
without a jar to the frame ol a sorrowful <>r a 
devout spirit 

William Henri Harrison was a native of Vir- 
ginia — that land bo fertile in illustrious names 
allied to our proudest recollections of courtesj and 
\alor. and Renins and patriotism. Hewasbornon 
the 9th of February, 1773, and. a< will be seen, 
aot Long before that memorable struggle had com- 
menced which ended not, till the thirteen colonies 
fought themselves into the rank of free and inde- 
pendent States. Hedescended from ancestors not 
unknown to fame in the early history of \ irginia. 
His father Benjamin Harrison, was an eminent 
patriot <>i' the revolution, and a gentleman of the 
old school, lit- occupied several commanding sta- 
tions, and mixed himself largely with all the great 
events and stirring interests of his time. In the 
year 1791 be died, having maintained unforfeited, 
i" the last, his claims to the confident e and favor 
"i his fellow-citizens. Benjamin Harrison was 
among the intrepid signers of the Declaration of 



Independence ; but history assigns to his name a 
yet nobler distinction, a more consecrated title to 
immortality, by recording the fact that he was 
" an intimate friend of Washington." 

Young Harrison was committed by his father to 
the care of Robert Morris, one of the most con- 
spicuous actors in the drama of the revolution — 
the great financier — gifted with no humble portion 
of the transcendant genius of Hamilton. To such 
influences was our late President subjected in the 
forming stages of his character. His father and 
his father's friend had perilled all in the cause of 
freedom. Is it strange that his youthful spirit 
caught the generous inspiration, and that he was 
eager to go forth to do and to dare in the service 
of his country 1 After completing his academical 
education at Hampden Sydney College, he direct- 
ed, under the advice of his friends, his attention to 
one of the liberal professions. He was reserved, 
however, for a far different destiny. The Indian 
tribes on our northwestern borders, who had fought 
under the banner of England, during the revolu- 
tionary war, laid not down the weapons of war 
when peace was concluded with their civilized 
ally. True to their instincts, the Indians pushed 
the work of rapine, and massacre, and conflagra- 
tion, till the faces of all who lived upon our fron- 
tiers gathered paleness. Throughout the whole 
land, sympathy for the sufferers, and indignation 
against their ruthless assailants, spread with elec- 
tric rapidity. Our young student was impatient 
to engage in the strife. Abandoning his profes- 
sional pursuits, he rushed, at the early age of 



eighteen, from the shades o! the academy into the 
tumults of the camp In the year L791 be receiv- 
ed from President Washington the commission ol 
' ign and, what i et men grateful to his 

iibilities h( in his romantic « n- 

terprise by the approving yoice i ••< shington. 
Shortly after the disastrous defeat ol St. < Hair, he 
reached h iment, then stationed at Fort Wash- 

ington which occupied the present Bite of the 
of Cincinnati. How pregnant with all the ele- 
ments and associations of romance is this Bimple 

i ' What an impressive commentary upon the 
elastic spirit and the expansive energies of free- 
dom! When Ensign Harrison first passed within 
her Limits, Ohio was a wilderness Cincinnati but 
a feeble and obscure settlement ! In the progi 
of a leu years, for what is half a century in the 
life of a nation, Ohio teems with population, and 
is endowed with all the institutions ol cultivated 
society, with all the faculties of an empire. Cin- 
cinnati i> the great city of the West, wealthy, 
enterprising, and intellectual. Yet more; this 
same Ensign Harrison, after having acini 
the silver liven of advised ace," comes to rule 

i 

over seventeen millions of people, at the cheering 
voice of the multitudes who now inhabit the mag- 
nificent domain in the defence of which he nerv< d 
his youthful arm ' 

The limits t,» which this address must be re 
Btricted, forbid me to dwell on the earl) militan 
career of Harrison. He was not slo* in establish- 
ing an elevated character, as a soldier and a man. 
The perils and trials, the privations and exposun - 



9 

incident to warfare with savages, amid forests and 
morasses, it would not be easy to exaggerate. 
None of these things moved him from his settled 
purpose. His health was delicate, and his friends, 
apprehensive that he would fall a victim to un- 
wonted trials of his strength, advised him to resign 
his commission. He refused to abandon the ser- 
vice in which he had embarked. Though removed 
from the wholesome restraints of public opinion, 
he yielded not to the seductions of the camp. He 
desecrated the temple of his immortal spirit, by no 
profane orgies ; and his habits of temperance, thus 
early formed, were the parent of the health and 
vigor which blessed him even to the close of life. 

Ensign Harrison was soon advanced to the rank 
of lieutenant. So highly did General Wayne, his 
commander-in-chief, esteem him for his courage, 
attention to discipline, and other military qualities, 
that he commissioned him as one of his aids-de- 
camp. In his general orders and official despatch- 
es, General Wayne, on more than one occasion, 
had reason to commend the bravery and good 
conduct of Lieutenant Harrison. The bloody and 
desperate battle of the Miami, in which the Indians 
were totally defeated, terminated the war. Soon 
after this battle, he was promoted to the rank of 
captain, and was assigned to the command of an 
important station on the western frontier. As, 
however, the peace with the Indians allowed him 
no farther opportunity of serving his country in 
the field, he, at the close of the year 1797, resigned 
his commission in the army. 
2 



10 

And now begins the civil career of Harrison — 
thai career which) though interrupted bj bii re- 
turn to the employments of military life, was d< 
tined not to end, till ;i grateful people conferred 
upon him the highest honor within their gift. 

Immediately after bis retirement from the army, 
he was appointed bj President Adams Secretary, 
and, . ., >, Lieutenant < iovernor of the North- 

western Territory. " Here jaya Mr ( lushii 
• : in the discharge of tin- civil duties incumbent on 
his office, lie became intimately associated with 
tlu- brave and hardy people around him, and learn- 
ed t<> iind< rstand, and dulj estimate the character, 
wants, and wishes of his countrymen Btudyii 
tbe practical Lessons of life in the great volume ol 
nature, as unfolded to bim by daily intercourse, in 
the cabin of the settler, tin- hunter's Lodge, the 
council chamber, and in social meetings with the 
free-spirited pioneers of the West." The North- 
western Territory then embraced tin- whole of our 
territory lying northwest of tin- river Ohio. Such 
confidence did tin- people of that Territory place 

in his talents and fidelity, that the\ elected him, 

the following year, their first Delegate to the Con- 

BTeSSOf the I nited States. In this new and im- 
portant relation, he acquired additional lion. a-. 

Associated with him in tin- councils of the nation, 
were Borne of our most distinguished statesmen 
and eloquent debaters. 'To he a member of Con- 
gress, at that time, was an enviable distinction; 



\ li •■outlines «.f tli-: Life of Harrison," by 1! a. Caleb 
tiiog. 



11 

for our halls of legislation had not then been dis- 
graced by those offensive personalities and those 
scenes of disorder which have since caused the 
considerate men of all parties to blush and to 
tremble for their country. Although only about 
twenty-six years of age, Mr. Harrison, by his 
broad and comprehensive views of public policy, 
and, by his familiarity with the practical details of 
legislation, commanded the respect of the more 
experienced men around him. He signalized his 
career in Congress, as a Delegate, by the change, 
which he proposed and materially contributed to 
effect, in the then existing mode of disposing of the 
public lands. They had heretofore been sold in 
large tracts, the smallest of which included at 
least four thousand acres. This system, found to 
be exclusive in its operation, and unfavorable to 
the growth of the West, was so modified by the 
bill which he reported, and which subsequently 
became a law, that the tracts of public land were 
required to be offered for sale in a very reduced 
size. Thus were they placed within the pecuniary 
ability of actual settlers. The principle involved 
in this important measure has, by subsequent acts 
of Congress, been extended. And its justice and 
wisdom have been signally vindicated by the mar- 
vellous changes which increasing population and 
wealth have wrought throughout the immense 
valley of the Mississippi. 

In the year 1800, the Northwestern Territory 
was divided, and a separate territory of almost 
boundless extent was established, under the name 
of Indiana. Mr. Harrison having resigned his seat 



12 

in Congress, was appointed Governor of thi^ m 
territory, being first appointed by Mr. A.dams, and, 
afterwards, by Mr. Jefferson. 11*- v.as intrusted 
u nh civil powers so extensive, and so unrestrained 
its the usual checks, that nothing l>m the necessi- 
ties of ih<- case and the high personal character 
of the Governor, could justify this wide practical 
departure from the cautious theories of a republi- 
can government. Well, b did In- repaj 
the confidence ilms reposed in h i> integrity, tal- 
ents, moderaf ion, and courage. For thirteen years, 
be dicharged, with unquestioned ability, the dut 
of his elevated and difficult office. The peculiar 
conditions under which he was placed, subjected 
his moral and intellectual character to ■ severe 
practical test. He ruled over a thinly-scatfc 
population, in the bosom of a wilderness, and sur- 
rounded by a ferocious and treacherous foe, thirst- 
ing i<> renew the work of slaughter and of ven- 
geance, lie was charged with a mass of gra 
complicated, and almost irresponsible powers, 
w hicb operated on the various interests of a people 
in the forming stages of Bocial organization. It 
was }\\< concern to see that the Indian did not 
pillage and murder the borderer; and thai the 
borderer did not provoke and defraud the Indian. 
It was, moreover, his concern to exercise a sub- 
stantial control over titles to Large tracts of the 
public land Lying within his civil jurisdiction. For 
Borne time, he was, in effect, the lawgiver of the 
people of the Northwest, and most exemplary was 
he in the discharge of his numerous delicate trusts 
The records of his multifarious transactions with 



13 

the Indians, in peace and in war, cannot be read 
without exalting the public estimate of his practi- 
cal wisdom in the conduct of affairs — without a 
stronger conviction of his military skill, and of the 
humanity which beautifully tempered his valor. 
" It is not," says Fisher Ames, " in Indian wars 
that heroes are celebrated ; but in them they are 
formed." The experience of Harrison illustrates 
this remark, and verifies its philosophic truth. 
From boyhood till the close of his military career, 
he was familiar with the warfare of the Indian. 
No stranger was he to " the suddenness of his 
onset, or the craft of his ambushes, or the ferocity 
of his vengeance." The discipline of difficulty 
and of danger was not lost upon him. His whole 
life was marked, and strongly marked, by those 
characteristics, which are developed, in great vigor, 
only by emergent occasions, by intricate combina- 
tions of circumstance, by strange and varied ex- 
periences of peril and of toil. 

While administering the government of Indiana, 
he was again compelled to resort to arms, in de- 
fence of his extended frontier against the attacks 
of the Indians. In the year 1805, was formed, as 
it is believed, under the influence of foreign emis- 
saries, a most formidable combination of all the 
Northwestern tribes of Indians, with the design, 
by a sudden and simultaneous onset, to destroy 
all the whites, or drive them from the valley of 
the Mississippi. Of this design, Governor Harrison 
was fully apprised, but, by the exercise of a wise 
policy, he was enabled, for several years, to pre- 
vent any serious attempt to execute it. 



1 1 

hi i In- year 1811, the inhabitants of oui western 
itier were again involved in an Indian war. 
whoop again awakened tie- Bleep "i the 
cradle, and the darkness of midnight glittered with 
the blaze of their dwelling At the h< ad of all 

tin- forces which he could muster Governor Harri- 
son marched, \\ itli caution, through an uncultivated 
ami exposed region, t<> Tippecanoe - that name, 
once how exhilarating! Bui ah, tin- carols are 
all ended ! On thai spot, was waged one of the 
ni<»v.( fearful strifes in the annals of Indian warfare. 
The forces were nearly equal ; every man shared 
the dangers of the battle. The Indian-, fought, 
hand to hand, and with desperate bravery. Night 
lenl her horrors to the Bcene. [n the midst oi all 
this wild and impetuous conflict, and exposed t<> 
imminent »nal hazard, Harrison continued to 

put forth his calm might, and to raise his animating 
i'. At Length, the day dawned, when, l>\ a 
novement, the strife was ended. Victory 
:hed upon the banners of our army. The bor- 
der settlements were rescued from the appalling 
calamities which threatened to overwhelm them. 

After the d< :laration of war with England, in 
the year 1812, the military talents of Harrison 
were again pul in requisition. The inhabitants of 
the frontiers looked to him, instinctively, for p 
tection, as the man of the crisis ; and the) looked 
not in vain. President Madison, responding to the 
universal sentiment, not to Bay the acclamations 

of the people of the West appointed him COIU- 

mander-in-chief of the Northwestern army. He 
was invested with powers the most extensive, and 



15 

was left to exercise them, according to his best 
judgment. In discharging the high trusts com- 
mitted to him, he did not fail to justify the confi- 
dence with which President Madison had honored 
him. Obstacles and impediments clustered in his 
path, and retarded his progress, but his spirit never 
faltered. His energy, firmness, and courage, were 
again triumphant. He accomplished all the ob- 
jects prescribed to him, and, within one short year 
from the time he commenced his campaign, he 
gloriously terminated it, by the victory of the 
Thames — " a victory which," said Langdon Cheves 
on the floor of Congress, " was such as would have 
secured to a Roman general, in the best days of 
the republic, the honors of a triumph ! " 

Unwilling, fellow-citizens, to detain you upon 
topics which, by some, may be thought uncongen- 
ial to this season of devout humiliation and funeral 
solemnity, I have sought to avoid all reference to 
military details ; and, in my rapid glance at what 
General Harrison dared and did, I have passed by 
many trials of character, not borne in vain, and 
scenes of martial triumph which the Muse of His- 
tory will transmit to future times. I have not re- 
called to your memory his brilliant defence of Fort 
Meigs, so memorable in the history of the late 
war, nor his wise forecast in causing a fleet to be 
built and equipped, in order to obtain command 
of Lake Erie. Quite unnecessary have I deemed 
it to remind you of his association, in danger and 
in fame, with our own Perry, who, with all the 
laurels which he had won upon the Lake, yet 



16 

upon bit brow, fought, ;^ a volunteer, in tin 
battle of the Thames, by the aide of Harrison. 

MoTed as it is thought, by some private grief 
the Secretary of War. G ral Armstrong;, in the 
plan of the ensuing campaign, saw lit to assign 
in Genera] Harrison a comparatively unimportant 
command, and to intrust to others the post of duty 
and of danger. Justly indignant at such treat- 
ment, and too disinterested to enjoy bis elevated 
rank ami the emoluments ivhich it conferred, with- 
out rendering an equivalent service, he resigned 
his commission in the army. In the absence of 
the President from the scat of government, the 

tretary of War hastily assumed the right to 
accept General Harrison's resignation. Thus, in 
the subsequent campaigns, the country was de- 
prived of the abilities of bira " who," in the words 
of the gallant Colonel Johnson, " was, during the 
Late war, longer in active service than any other 
genera] officer ; was perhaps oftener in action than 
any of them, and never sustained a defeat." 

General Harrison returned to the walks of pri- 
\att- Life, with a name, not only unsullied, but 
bright with honor. President Madison, in ap- 
pointing him, soon after his resignation, to conduct, 
in connexion with other distinguished men, impor- 
tant negotiations with several of the Indian tribes, 
gave him a renewed proof of that confidence which 
had. it is believed, at no tune, been either bus 
pended or withdrawn. Vet more conspicuous 
honors awaited him. In L816 be was elected a 
Representative in Congress from the State oi 



17 

Ohio ; and, in 1824, having been, in the mean- 
time, a member of the Ohio Senate, he was elected 
a Senator in Congress from that State. General 
Harrison had, for so many years, been conversant 
with the principles and details of civil adminis- 
tration ; so familiar was he with the various inter- 
ests of the West ; so interested in all that related 
to the effective organization of the army, that he 
soon became a prominent member of that body, 
which then, as it is now, was composed of some of 
the ablest men in the country. He was, as would 
appear from his cursory debates and his more 
formal speeches in Congress, a ready, animated, 
and efficient debater, full of resources, and apt in 
applying them to the subject under discussion. 
In the debates of the Senate he frequently parti- 
cipated, and he helped, in no humble measure, to 
shape the character of several important acts of 
general legislation. 

The last civil function which General Harrison 
performed, prior to his election to the President- 
ship, was a diplomatic function. In 1828, Presi- 
dent Adams appointed him Envoy Extraordinary 
and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Republic of 
Colombia. Without delay, he repaired to the 
scene of his mission. Such, however, was the 
state of the new republic, and so speedily was he 
recalled, in consequence of a change of parties at 
home, that he was unable to accomplish any im- 
portant object. His celebrated letter to Bolivar, 
the Dictator of Colombia, must be familiar to the 
minds of all who hear me. I advert to it now, 
not so much for the purpose of commending its 
3 



18 

generous republican sentiments, ta for the pun 
of directing your attention t<> the following noble 
passag To be esteemed eminently great, it is 

trj to be < minently g I. The qualities 

the hero and tin- general must be d< roted to the 
advantage ol mankind, before he will be permit- 
ted i" assume the title of their benefactor; and 
the station which he will hold in their regard and 
affections will depend, not upon the number and 
Bplendor of his victories, but upon the results and 
tin" use he may make <>t' the influence he acquires 
from them." Here is embodied the grand moral 
of Harrison's life, the true secret of his fame, the 
only imperishable element of all real greatnes 

I have invited yon. my fellow-citizens, to a rar- 
\ ey of a Large portion of tin- active lift- of < Jem 
Harrison. You have followed him from \n< youth 
to his mature age. You have beheld him, at one 
time, discharging grave and most difficult civil 
trusts . at another, fighting the battles of his coun- 
try, and. I>v his victories >vering her lost terri- 
torv, and retrieving her lost honor You have 
beheld him, amid primeval forests, contending with 
the elements, and protecting the n I Iweller 

beyond the mountains from savage ferocity. You 
have seen him. in legislative hall-, len his 

ripened wisdom t<> the public counsels; and you 
have seen him, last of .-ill, the apostle of republi- 
can principles at tin- court of a Dictator! Ami, 
amid all this variety of conditions, have you not. 
found him. in purpose, in principle, in character, 
always 'he Bame always just, always firm; his 



19 

head always quick to discern the wise expedient ; 
his " heart expanded, and always in the right 
place " 1 * 

And now, fellow-citizens, follow this veteran 
worthy, rich in naught but honor, into his retire- 
ment on the banks of the beautiful Ohio. See 
how life passes with him, under this new condition. 
Is he not the same man still ? Though not born 
for seclusion, is he impatient of seclusion 1 Does 
he sigh for the camp, or the senate-house, or the 
court 1 Does the crowded drama, in which he has 
been a chief actor, pass in shadowy review before 
him, to mock dejected hopes, and to exasperate 
the sense of disappointment to a pang ? Do you 
need to be told that William Henry Harrison was 
too rich in the materials of intellectual and moral 
happiness, to waste an hour in dreams, or to suffer 
a drop of bitterness to reach the fountains of his 
spirit 1 He lived at North Bend, as he had lived 
every where else, to good purpose, like a true man 
and a true gentleman ; enjoying homebred affec- 
tions ; like some of the best worthies of ancient 
days, cultivating his acres, without forgetting his 
country or neglecting his heart ; given to a gene- 
rous hospitality ; and, when graver duties did not 
forbid, regaling his intellect and taste by the study 
of elegant letters. Such was William Henry Har- 
rison at his homestead on the banks of the Ohio. 
How does that dwelling mourn that the light of his 
presence has vanished for ever ! Henceforth, it 



* Governor Metcalfe, of Kentucky. 



•>(l 



will become, in some sort, a consecrated >| •« .t . ami 

the traveller, a- he approaches n. will strain hi- 

eyes i" catch a glimpse of the mansion when 
passed, in honor ami in quiet some of tin- happiest 
\, an of tin' patriot statesman, now translated t<» 
a house not made n itli hands. 

Of subsequenl events in his history, 1 ran pre- 
siimr no one to bo ignorant The voice of the 
people summoned him from a retirement which he 

hail supposed was t<> continue lor tin- residue of 
his lite, to lill the otlice of President of these I si- 
ted States. His journey from Ohio to Washington 
will not soon be forgotten. Without the pomp of 
a triumph, it had more than the honors of a tri- 
umph. At the wayside and at the place of con- 
course — in city or in hamlet — -on mountain or in 
valley, the people, without distinction of age, sex, 
color, or condition, pressed upon him, with their 
hearts in their hands, to bid him welcome. Ar- 
rived at the seat of government, like a true son of 
Virginia, lie yearned to revisit, once more, his 
native land. The thought of other years, of ties 
now broken, but well remembered still, came 
thronirinir around him ; and, before he entered 
upon the duties of office, lie yielded to his affec- 
tionate instincts, and went to see Virginia. He 
went to look, once more, at the old family man- 
sion, to survey its ancestral halls, to Bit, again, 
under the shade of those patrimonial trees, beneath 
which he had frolicked in boyhood to live o\er 
again, in memory, the days when his father was 
alive, and his children were about him — and, \« i 
more, to all his spirit with most gracious inlluen- 



21 

ces, by recollections of that mother who was 
wont to pray for him, and who taught him how to 
pray ! In that mother's chamber, where he was 
born, and where he had often kneeled beside her, 
while she earnestly implored the rich blessings of 
Heaven on his future life, he penned that remark- 
able passage in his inaugural address, in which he 
expresses his profound reverence for the Christian 
religion. How beautiful the picture here presented 
to our view ! The child of many prayers has be- 
come a gray-haired statesman, and is about to be 
clothed with the selectest honor which a nation 
can confer. With thoughts saddened by anticipa- 
tions of the cares and responsibilities of office, he 
turns to the image of his sainted mother, and on 
that spot from which her voice of supplication had 
gone up to the mercy seat for him, he bears his 
testimony to the value of that religion which was 
her hope in death, and which, it is not too much 
to say, was his ! 

The scenes at which I have asked you to look, 
must undergo another, and yet another change. 
Next comes the Inauguration. A pageant more 
brilliant and captivating, has, in this country, 
seldom been seen. The metropolis was thronged 
with multitudes from the East and from the West, 
from the North and from the South. As the pro- 
cession, with bannered pomp, and glittering array, 
and spirit-stirring music, passed along the streets 
and avenues of Washington, the man of the people 
was the observed of all observers. On every side, 
was heard the voice of welcome, and every face 
was lighted with the smile of joy. He took the oath 



22 

ofoffia and delivered his address in the nee 

ofnearl) fortj thousand of his countrymen, 
listening, with profound attention, to what proi 
to be bis parting count Is they rent the air with 
i beir acclamat iona ' 

In one month, one little month, ah! what a 
change! Hushed all at once are the jubilant 
echoes, and Qed the joyous smiles. The wail of 
ii>U is heard from the bed of sickness, doomed, 
too Boon, to become the bed of death. Throughout 
our land, intense was the anxiety which \n< dan 
awakened, and genuine the sorrow felt l>\ th< men 
of all parties, when it was known that he bad ceas- 
ed in live. Well might we all grieve for one, who 
had ev< r been true t<> us for one whose thoughts 
were upon usand bis country, even when the dews 
dt' that!; gathered upon his forehead. These 5cen< b 
of touching pathos winch I have sketched, but 
have not aimed t<> paint, are well nigh over. 
What solemn beauty, what almost incommunica- 
ble sadness in that last pageant, with which the 
nation sought to assuage its own sorrow, and to 
honor the illustrious dead ! What a change had 
come over that dwelling, in one short month! 

There he lav. in that dread repose' which no man 

may break, ami upon the very Bpot which had 
hardly parted with the echoes of congratulation 

and of triumph. No \oice now was heard, hut 
the voice of him who, in the name of his Lord, 

spoke of the Resurrection ami the Life. u The 
awful fathers of the State were then- the titled 
representatives of kings were there— political 
chieftains, once bis foemen, were there — warriors 



23 

young and old, were there, to look, for the last 
time, upon a warrior's face ! Slowly and solemnly, 
they bore him to his grave — through those same 
paths which he so lately trod, full of health, and 
hope, and joy. Not a sound is heard, but the 
knell of death — the muffled drum, the hearse-like 
airs which float upon the breeze, like airs from 
another world. With reverent hands, they com- 
mit his body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes 
to ashes, dust to dust ! And is this all of William 
Henry Harrison ! No ! Faith triumphs over the 
grave. They look for the general resurrection in 
the last day, when this corruption shall put on 
incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immor- 
tality ! 

My fellow-citizens, how impressive are the 
scene? which I have contrasted. In presenting 
them afresh to vour minds, I have dealt in no arts 
of poetical exaggeration. Can they be looked 
upon without emotion 1 It is not, however, for 
the purpose of indulging an indolent and luxurious 
sorrow that we have come hither, to-day. We 
have come together to pay a tribute of veneration 
to the character of a great and good man ; to 
contemplate that character, in some of the various 
lights in which it was reflected ; and to gird our- 
selves for a yet sterner conflict with the principle 
of evil within and around us. 

I stand not here to lavish extravagant praise 
upon the departed President. He was a man, 
and, therefore, was not without the frailties of a 
man. I place him on no height of inaccessible 



24 

virtue I bespeak lor bim no idolatrous homage. 
To some exhibitions of hi^ character, I have al- 
read] adverted Before, however, I quit the task 
with which you have honored me, let me speak to 
you, somewbal more fully, of bis substantial claims 
ujinii your respect and grateful remembrani 



President Harrison belonged to the order of 
efficient and well-balanced minds. Subjected t<» 
numerous and decisive tests, in peace and in war. 
his intellectual powers were always found t«> be 
equal, and more than equal, to the crisis. The] 
were distinguished, not Less for their amplitude 
than their harmony. They were prone to no ex- 
they exhibited no disproportion, they delight- 
ed in no eccentricity. Abstractions never bewil- 
dered them; the splendid and fanciful combina- 
tions of genius never seduced them from their 

sphere. The besl part of every man's education 
is the discipline of life — the demands which prac- 
tical occasions make upon the mind— the difficul- 
ties which sharpen its penetration — the labors 

which task its strength — the extended relations 

which enlarge its comprehension. To this BOrt of 

intellectual training, he was early accustomed; 
and the freedom, and directness, and vigor with 
which he put forth Ins mind, under ever) varietj 
of circumstance, was of such training the natural 
result, lie Btudied, however, not only men. bul 
books, and hooks he studied, that he might better 

Understand men. Without pretensions to erudi- 
tion, he had stored his mind with a rich fund of 
genera] knowledge, and he had superadded the 



25 

finish of no inelegant scholarship. The produc- 
tions of his pen would fill a volume. While they 
do honor to his powers as a thinker, they exhibit 
him as a ready, clear, and polished writer. I am 
admonished, however, to leave this region of frigid 
analysis, to dwell on themes of gentler and more 
solemn interest — to speak to you of the man, and 
of the spirit which moved the man, in the various 
and commanding relations which he was called to 
sustain ; of those moral endowments for which he 
was so eminent ; and which, now that he is no 
more, we most love to contemplate. 

As a statesman, William Henry Harrison stood 
upon well-defined principles, and to these princi- 
ples he adhered with unswerving honor. This was 
the main cause of his popularity — a popularity 
unequalled by that of any other man, since the 
days of Washington. His popularity was not that 
which is run after — " that weed of the dunghill, 
which, when rankest, is nearest to withering." * It 
was founded on intrinsic merit and good service. 
The people trusted him and favored him, not so 
much because they thought him to be great, as 
because they knew him to be honest. They saw 
that, in the discharge of his public duties, he was 
not only just, but humane and disinterested — not 
only firm, but conciliating and forbearing. Few 
men have enjoyed more abundant opportunities of 
enriching themselves, and yet he died compara- 
tively poor. He died poor, because he abhorred 
the degradation of acquiring wealth by equivocal 



* Fisher Ames. 



meant and be* ause .1- a public man. he would 
use no means to benefit hi*; fortunes, which would 
expose linn even to the suspicion of dishonor. Hon 
would tli«' records of thi- L r ""d man's life Bhame 
these days of lai private and social morality, 
when a pure name is do Longer preferred to riches ; 
when the most sacred trusts are abused ; when the 
obligations of law. and honor, and conscience are 
violated, not only without scruple, hut without 
punishment ! 

As a military man. In- was remarkable for the 
excellent discipline which, without the exercise <>i 

severity, he was able to maintain. This \6 no 
-mall praise; for he had to deal with somewhat 

refractor} materials; with Indians bard to be 
reconciled to tin- usages of civilized warfare; with 
regular troops do< yet estranged from irregular 
babits; with militia, impatient to return t" their 
homes, and jealous of all restraints upon their 
freedom. It was by generous moral influences, 
that he moulded these discordant materials to his 

purposes He never forgot that his troops were 

men, and that some of them were his Irllow-citi- 

zens. He' governed them with ease, because, to 
use his own language, " be treated them \\ itfa kind- 
ness and affection ; and shared with them, on ever) 
occasion, the hardships which they were obliged to 
undergo." 

The uncounterfeited Badness with which the 
tidings of President Harrison's death were receiv- 
ed throughout the country, inspires confidence in 
the mora] sensibilities of the countn Thank 



21 

God ! there yet remain to us some spots of verdure, 
amid the arid waste which antagonist parties have 
created — some cheering tokens that even in our 
strifes we have not forgotten that we are men, and 
brethren, and Christians ! It indicates a yet higher 
form of the moral character, that this people, 
turning away from the civil and military distinc- 
tions of Harrison, seek to contemplate the beauty 
of his daily life. And yet more, it marks the uni- 
versality of the religious sentiment, and it speaks 
well for the Christian character of our country, 
that his chastened and humble piety is among the 
most precious recollections of those who now mourn 
and honor him. Happily on this topic, which com- 
mends itself with such interest to every man who 
values himself on the dignity of a thinking being, 
we are left to something better than a trembling 
hope. Since his death, the public mind has, on 
more than one occasion, been attracted to ample 
evidence that his piety was no formal and decorous 
piety — that his faith was no speculative faith — 
that his good deeds were performed in dependence 
upon a strength not his own. Most exemplary 
was his reverence for that Book, which, in the 
comprehensive language of John Locke, " has God 
for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, with- 
out any mixture of error, for its matter." With 
no austere precision, but with conscientious gravi- 
ty, did he observe that sacred day which is the 
great bulwark of Christianity in all lands, and 
which this people are more especially concerned 
to save from desecration. And yet more, he felt 
himself to be a sinner in the sight of God, and he 



prostrated himself in devout humility, before the 
Saviour of sinners To that Saviour he had given 
\w< heart, and to that Saviour be had resolved, 
without delay, publicly to confess his allegiance. 
A no Lest interesting proof of the temper of his 
soul ma) here be added. In a Letter to her who 
for bo many fears, the depositary of his affec- 
tionate and unreserved confidence he revealed the 
interesting tact that, alter returning from the <■ 
monies of the inauguration, he ret ired to his i ham- 
ber, as soon as he could find time, and there fell 
upon his knees to thank his Maker for all his 

mercies, and to supplicate his gracious guidance 

in the faithful discharge of the duties which, as 

the occupant of a high Station, he owed t" him 
and to his country. Is there in an incident like 
this no power l" reach the heart I A Christian 
statesman, oppressed by the solitariness of gran- 
deur, seeks communion with his God ! A. Chris- 
tian statesman, anticipating that trials may per- 
plex and darken his course, goes, for liu r ht and for 

comfort, to the source of eternal illumination and 
repose ! 

My fellow-citizens, the man for whom we are 

now in heaviness, and whose lame we are about 
to commit to the judgment of history assured that 
from the judgment of history he has nothing to 

fear, 1ms expressed, as in the presence of thi>> 

whole people, his profound reverence tor the Chris- 
tian religion, and his thorough conviction that 
sound morals, religious liberty, and a just sense of 
religious responsibility are essentially connected 



29 

with all true and lasting happiness. In the proud 
days of Gentile philosophy, a famous historian 
stigmatized Christianity, in accommodation to the 
prevailing sentiment, as " a pernicious supersti- 
tion." Not two thousand years have passed away, 
and what a change in the moral condition of soci- 
ety hath been wrought ! Christianity has become 
the religion of every portion of the earth redeemed 
from barbarism — the parent of a new and higher 
form of civilization — elevating, every where, the 
masses, and, through the agency of the masses, 
pervading the character of all existing institu- 
tions. This great principle of social progress is 
destined to achieve yet nobler triumphs — to dif- 
fuse, through all civilized lands, yet sublimer con- 
ceptions of truth and of duty — to endow with 
moral life the races which for ages have slumber- 
ed in darkness. In this country, more especially, 
is Christianity to be prized as an essential ele- 
ment of strength, and happiness, and safety. We 
need the hopes which it inspires ; but, most of all, 
do we need the motives which it implants, and the 
restraints which it provides. Here, all power re- 
sides exclusively in the people ; and our govern- 
ment supposes that the most efficient checks, the 
only genuine conservative influences, are the good 
sense of a cultivated, moral, and religious people. 
Let us, then, be true to ourselves. Let us take 
good heed that our liberty does not degenerate 
into license ; that our passions do not drown the 
voice of our reason ; that impracticable theories 
do not mislead us ; that inordinate vanity and 
reckless self-confidence do not betray us to our 
ruin. 



In election! to office, let im turn away from th< 
demagogues who meanly seek our confidence, to 
the men wlm beat deserve it ; t<» the men who are 
too honest ti» flatter us, and too patriotic not to 
our interests to our favor. Above all, let 
us remember that, unless the spirit of the people 
be right, legal <",). -. are nothing— protective char- 
ters arc nothing— constitutions, whether written 
or unwritten, arc nothing— and that our popular 
institutions cannot be upheld, without impressing 
on the popular mind a conviction of the indisso- 
luble union between religion, liberty, and law. 



